In 1940, the French fleet was the 4th-largest in the world, and the French defeat raised the very real possibility that it would fall into German and Italian hands, tipping the balance of naval power in Europe. The French were determined that this would not be allowed to happen, and evacuated as many ships as they could to their African colonies. But Churchill wasn't willing to accept their assurances, and on July 3rd, took more forceful measures to make sure the French ships didn't become a threat to British interests. Ships in British ports were seized, while a task force arrived off Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, with an ultimatum for the ships there to either join the British or be sunk. The French chose the latter option, and the British opened fire, sinking two battleships and badly damaging a third, Dunkerque.

Andrew Cunningham

This caused major problems for the last major French force within easy reach of the British, Force X at Alexandria, sent to aid the British in protecting the eastern Mediterranean. The British commander, Andrew Cunningham, received orders to give his French counterpart, Rene-Emile Godfroy, the same ultimatum that had been delivered at Mers-el-Kebir, but the two men agreed that no actions would be taken that day, despite both sides receiving orders over the radio that would have caused a massacre. Tensions remained very high on the 4th, and Cunningham ordered his ships to stop aiming at the French, while Godfroy insisted that his crews adhere as closely as possible to normal peacetime routine. The sight of French sailors scrubbing the decks, painting, and even swimming did as much as anything to lower the risks of shooting breaking out. Read more...

The Fall of France put British mastery of the seas in grave jeopardy. Already overstretched by the efforts required to contain Germany and Italy, the Royal Navy now faced the potential that the French fleet would be added to the ranks of its enemies, bringing immediate disaster. Admiral Darlan, the chief of the Marine Nationale, did his best to make it clear in the days before and after the armistice that he would never allow his ships to be taken by a foreign power, and he was able to evacuate the vast majority of them to the French colonies in Africa, where the Germans and Italians seemed content to let them sit out the war.

Charles de Gaulle attempts to persuade his fellow Frenchmen via the BBC

Winston Churchill, however, was unwilling to let the situation develop, probably because he thought a decisive action was needed to boost morale and signal that he was not deterred by the loss of the French. Instead of even considering waiting for the ships to be moved back to German-controlled ports, the biggest concern for the British, they immediately began to take steps to neutralize them.¹ The first was to approach French units about carrying on the war as part of Charles de Gaulle's Free French, but the response was almost unanimous. These officers saw the government now settling in at Vichy as the legitimate government of France, and breaking to join De Gaulle would be mutiny. The main effect of these overtures was merely to antagonize Darlan and other French admirals. Churchill ordered more dramatic measures taken. Read more...

Apologies for the lack of Aurora this week. I've been busy, and to make up for it, I offer something else.

Top Gun was on Amazon Prime, and while I've seen it before, I figured it was worth watching again for your benefit. First, the title is wrong. As Neptunus Lex says, the name is TOPGUN. One word, all caps, don't ask. We start with some fairly nice carrier ops footage. Besides a rather silly soundtrack, I'd also accuse them of erasing everything that isn't an F-14.

And then we get to the black-painted F-5s. They're very clearly F-5s. This is almost Pearl Harbor levels of bad. And why does that display show a 360° sweep? That is not how most aircraft radars work. And then they're called MiG-28s. That's a very odd-looking transport, to say nothing of what it's doing trying to dogfight with an F-14. (Until quite recently, all Soviet/Russian fighters had odd numbers, while some attack aircraft and transports had even numbers.) And then we get into dogfighting, which is done at ludicrously close range. Also, there's no way to tell that someone has locked on with an IR missile, and I don't think most radar-homing missiles work at that range.

And then we have "Cougar", the pilot with a tragic skin condition who panics. The USN is pretty good at screening for that. There's no way the LSOs don't wave off a plane that's gyrating that much, and I'm pretty sure that disobeying an order like Tom Cruise did gets you grounded, not sent to TOPGUN. Read more...

In 1940, France's fleet was the 4th-largest in the world,² and had proved a valuable ally to the British during the opening months of the war, protecting the sea lanes and helping in the battle for Norway, as well as taking responsibility for the eastern Mediterranean when Italy looked posed to enter the war. Unfortunately, this power also made it a potential threat to the British if it ended up in unfriendly hands.

Francois Darlan

This scenario became terrifyingly real to London in June 1940. Even after the stunning German successes in Belgium and Northern France, which ultimately forced the British to evacuate their troops from Dunkirk and destroyed many of France's best units, the French planned to fight on. The Germans began to attack south at the beginning of June, and the French initially fought well, raising hopes that they would be able to hold out. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and French defenses began collapsing within a few days. Admiral Francois Darlan, chief of the Marine Nationale, attempted to preserve the fleet as best he could, ordering evacuation of all ships from the threatened Atlantic ports, scuttling of any ships which couldn't be evacuated, and destruction of shore facilities to deny them to the Germans. Read more...

Today is Easter, and as is tradition around here, it's time to take a look at the actions of a military chaplain. This year's is Lieutenant Vincent Capodanno, USNR, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam.

Capodanno was ordained a priest in 1958, and chose to join the Maryknoll Society, a Catholic missionary society known for going into rough areas and living alongside the natives. His first assignment was to Taiwan, where he spent six years as a teacher and missionary. After a brief trip back to the US, he volunteered as a Chaplain in support of the growing US presence in Vietnam, and was quickly commissioned into the Navy.³ In April 1966, he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and quickly gained a reputation for his focus on the "grunts", the junior enlisteds on the front lines. He ate and slept with them, and despite orders from his commander, he often slipped off on patrols with them. When asked why he was wearing a flack jacket, which didn't seem like "a good advertisment for his faith", he replied “I know it, but it’s protective coloration so I blend in with the men. In addition, I understand their trials better if I accept the same burdens they do. I want to be available in the event anything serious occurs; to learn firsthand the problems of the men, and to give them moral support, to comfort them with my presence. In addition, I feel I must personally witness how they react under fire—and experience it myself—to understand the fear they feel.”⁴ Read more...

It's time once again for our usual open thread. Talk about whatever you want, even if it's not naval/military related.

I have no particular plans to write on the MV Ever Given incident specifically, although salvage in general remains on my list of topics to cover some day. I will say, however, that I am extremely happy at the fact that the importance of seaborne trade was at least briefly in the spotlight.

2018 overhauls are the Early Battlecruisers, Why do we need so many ships?, ASW in WWI, SYWTBABB - Design Part 1, The Pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau and Operation Staple Head. 2019 overhauls are Auxiliaries Part 5, Commercial Aviation Part 10, German Guided Bombs Part 4, The Spanish-American War Part 3, Naval Fiction, SYWTBABB Construction Part 2 and The Philadelphia Experiment. 2020 overhauls are Falklands Part 20, Southern Commerce Raiding Part 2, Merchant Ships - General Cargo and Lord Nelson's review of SS Anne.

Naval historians are still debating the nature of the catastrophe that wiped out the battleship. Some think it was a giant asteroid impact, but those people are stupid.

Others claim the battleship disappeared from the world's navies because it was discovered that they were too vulnerable to fire. Oilers would create large slicks, then set them alight with flares, burning the battleships alive.

Many battleships were named after leaders during European colonization of the Americas or for indigenous native tribes. The names became so widely recognized they were later co-opted as the names for the states.

A landlocked South American country once bought a battleship, but was unable to find a permanent port to keep it in, so it spent many years moving from place to place. Some say it still wanders the seas today, menacing passing merchants, while others claim it was sunk by mistake during WWII.

Japan once attempted to propel a battleship by towing it with torpedoes. It ran into Godzilla.

Donald Trump's promise to reactivate the battleships was made because he believed that the USS Iowa had an important role to play in the upcoming primary, and he was trying to win votes.

The German flying battleship program resulted in what is technically the heaviest aircraft ever to fly. However, it was only able to fly for a few seconds before the scuttling charges were accidentally activated as part of the abort procedure. German naval officers claimed that this made it a successful test.

Wet Combat historians often debate about the efficacy of battleships versus warships. The key difference obviously is that while battleships can participate in any one combat, warships must participate in every single combat of the war, which can be challenging in wars fought on multiple fronts. Until recent centuries the single use battleships were considered a waste of steel, but they've found renewed popularity with the invention of the "paint it a different color and hope the admiral doesn't notice" method.

I've previously looked at the boiler and engine rooms aboard Iowa, and it's now time to take a look at the third space, the aft auxiliary machinery room. I've only been down there once about two years ago, so this probably won't be as clear as the earlier posts.

Getting down to the auxiliary machinery room requires going down a very steep shaft

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In the late 50s, the US Navy began work on what was known as the Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM), going from program start to the first operational cruise of the USS George Washington carrying Polaris missiles in only four years. But the Polaris A1 missiles that Washington carried were essentially prototypes, and something better would be needed to arm the 40 SSBNs that would follow her into service.

Polaris A2 missile

Work on the follow-on Polaris A2 was well in hand even as George Washington began her first patrol. One major focus was improved reliability, to make the missile actually something that could be adequately maintained by a submarine's crew in operational service. Another upgrade was an improved second stage, stretched 30" to bring the range up to the 1,500 nm that was originally desired. This greatly increased the patrol area, bringing Moscow within range not only from boats in the Norwegian Sea, but also the Mediterranean and Aegean. Patrols in the Mediterranean began in 1963, essentially replacing the Jupiter missiles withdrawn from Turkey as part of the deal that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pacific patrols began the next year, with Polaris replacing the Regulus submarines on patrol off the Soviet Pacific coast. Read more...

1975 was a better year, with no losses among our survey ships. We discovered that both of our ships were destroyed by the same race, which was previously unknown to us, but surveys showed no connection between the systems we lost ships in. In fact, NN3659 was a dead end. Our xenology teams are still arguing over the implications of this. Beyond that, we have just finished developing a new commercial engine, which opens up options. We should probably consider a new tanker, as well as follow-on cargo and colony ships. We also need to figure out what action to take against this race, and what implications it has for our building plans.

Database for 1976.